A single strike was enough for the Robins to see off another early league leader as John Pritchard’s superb effort took all 3 points at the Winner Recruitment Stadium. The visitors were forced into several changes with captain Mark Lees on honeymoon, Cavell Coo switched to left back allowing Lanre Olapade to step in on the right side of defence.

There was an early alarm in the visiting defence as Josh Hine’s long throw needed to be cleared off the but the whistle had already been blown and McKeown’s left wing cross then found Baker unable to direct his header goal wards. A long clearance by Aaron Chalmers then found Jack Dyche helping his effort over the bar and Nicky Platt then joined in sending a raking effort well wide. Just before the half hour the Robins took the lead for the fourth successive game as Platt’s pass found Pritchard in space and his swerving effort from 30 yards gave McMillan in the home goal no chance, a moment of quality out of keeping with most of what had gone before.

Liam Tomsett then forced a save out of McMillan with a swinging shot as the Robins got their passing game going and Chalmers then headed Pilkington’s free kick over the top. As the interval approached the ball broke in the area to Jerome who forced a sharp save from Carnell and the hosts came the closest as Baker’s pass found Mwasile who cut inside and pushed the Ashton keeper into a low save. On the resumption Hine made a decent run from halfway before being crowded out as the Ashton defence started to come under something of an aerial bombardment leading to Vassallo’s in swinging corner being headed over by Sanogo from inside the 6 yard box.
Fellow sub Connor Hughes then saw 2 goal bound efforts blocked before a long cross saw Sanogo’s header deflected out for a corner. The Ashton rearguard remained largely untroubled as the hosts’ final attempts saw Hughes’ swinging cross headed to safety by Chalmers and Gray’s attempt deflect through to Carnell.

Team: Carnell, Olapade, Coo, Granite, Chalmers, Roberts, Platt, Tomsett, Pilkington (Chadwick 67), Pritchard, Dyche. SNU: Banim, Woodford, Durnin.